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Title Slide: What Did You Want to Be When You Were Younger?

Leah Shales: When I was younger I wanted to be a writer or an archaeologist, mostly an archaeologist.

Jen Hildahl: What did I want to be when I was younger? You know, I think that changed every day, so I don’t have a good answer for that. It certainly wasn’t an accountant.

Luella Schmidt: Oh, when I was really young I wanted to be a writer, which I never really did anything with. I used to write poems when I was little. Later, my backup career was always, I thought it would be cool to be a History Professor, I don’t know if cool is the right word.

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Title Slide: Employees vs. Contractors | With Luella Schmidt

Luella Schmidt: We get asked this question a lot, what the difference is between employees and contractors. The deal is we get a lot of business owners where they think, well, I’ll just save on payroll taxes, I’ll just pay everybody as a contractor and they think that you can just do that. Unfortunately, the federal government has a set of rules that you have to follow, sort of guidelines on how to determine whether they are an employee or a contractor and the state government also has a slightly different set of rules. (more…)

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Video Transcript

Title Slide: If Not an Accountant, What Would You Be? | With Luella Schmidt, Jen Hildahl, and Leah Shales

Jen Hildahl: I don’t know what I would be doing. I feel like I don’t know where else my skill set is. The only other job I’ve really had in my life has been a lifeguard, but you know it’s not very intellectually challenging so, as much as I think that was a great job, I think I would be bored by now. So, I’m happy being an accountant.

Leah Shales: I would either be, I would strive to be a Hollywood actress or I would be a professional roller derby person. I don’t roller derby now, but I think that it would be a really awesome career.

Luella Schmidt: To be a history professor. I’ve always thought history is just fascinating. I like to read a lot about it and I think teaching is a really noble profession.

A relationship with a banker can be an enormous asset to your business. A quality banker can save you time and money and also introduce you to important business connections and contacts.

Here is a simple three question test to see if you could get a better lender:

1. Have you ever deliberately changed your bank since your business started?

2. Has your banker ever connected you with a valuable new customer, supplier or service provider?

3. Does your banker understand and reference your business goals?

If you answer “No” to any of these questions, you could definitely find a better banker. But how?

You could simply call another bank, but that would mean listening to yet another pitch. You could ask your business contacts for referrals to banks and bankers their businesses have been happy with, but it is likely your contacts have very different businesses with goals unlike yours — maybe their banker wouldn’t be as good a fit for you? There is always social media to turn to, but that is like finding a needle in a hay stack.

Bankmybiz.com is a new website that streamlines the process of connecting you with valuable relationship-based lenders. After filling out a simple profile (Bankmybiz doesn’t ask for any personal financial data) you begin to receive matches with lenders who fit your business’s profile. The platform is free to use and within a matter of minutes you’ll be interacting with many bankers. You can also ask questions to the network and get answers and second opinions from expert lenders. See you there!

Sung to the tune of “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”…obviously…

Outsourced accountants? Remote work environment? Is that even possible? You bet it is, and what’s the best part? It works.

With our business model, we are “your accountants down the hall”, but far enough down that we won’t barge through your office door and demand you get into a nail-biting conversation about when to recognize and when to defer revenue (just the thought of having that conversation makes me drool). But where are we really?

Are we based in sunny Maui, where we spend a couple of hours a week perfecting our Midwestern accents and brushing up on cheese, sausage, and Packers (cough…Bears) knowledge? Is our entire staff spread throughout the U.S., and we come together only once a year to take those amazing photos that you see on our website (seriously…Hannes Design must have some insane talent to make us all look that breathtaking)? Guess again.

Fine Point Consulting is now located in an amazing new suite right on the square in downtown Madison. We made the trek from Fitchburg in December, and we could not be happier! Not only are we now so much closer to many of our clients, but we are also right next to Cooper’s Tavern! First, we chose the life path of being accountants, and now we are on a first name basis with the bartenders at Coopers. Could we get any more awesome?! I think not!

So while we are true Madisonians, we have still been known to check e-mails while hitting the slopes in northern Michigan, jump on a conference call while seeing the Vikings play in London, and even review and send financial statements while on our honeymoon in Antigua (this behavior is not encouraged).

Truth is, we could be anywhere, but we still hold you as our number one priority. And whether we are braving the cold walk from the Overture Center parking garage to the office (2 blocks?! It feels like 12!), or sitting on a beach sipping a Mai Tai, we are still taking care of business. Your business. That’s our model, and we’re sticking to it!